In 1998, the UK government introduced a law designed to deter harassment called the Anti Social Behaviour Order or ASBO. The law has been controversial - some hailed it as a great way to deal with wayward punks whereas in other instances, something like this happens:

Daniel Cope, 13, was devastated when eight-year-old Milly disappeared from the family home.

He spent hours hunting for the pet with his parents before printing off 100 posters with tortoiseshell Milly's picture and putting them up on lamp-posts near the family home in Whitstable, Kent.

Just three days later, Daniel's mother Heather, 43, received a phone call from a community warden telling her they had to come down. [...] 'She said it came under an anti-social behaviour act and we could face an £80 penalty. I just burst into tears when she told me, I couldn't believe it.'

To be fair the council did apologise and say it'd been overzealous. That kind of thing happens all the time and isn't really newsworthy. It's newsworthy when the council continues to overstep the mark and actually carries out the action threatened by its twit of a warden. And, indeed, that does happen from time to time and does end up in the papers and then the council's /really/ got egg all over its face.